The Forrest City times., 1887-12-31
And tho parrot would .ay witn great ra.

And the parrot would say. with great ra- pidity, Pieces of eightl pieces of eighti' till you wondered that it was not out of breath, or till John threw his handkerchief over the cage.
 Now, that bird, !" he would say '1s, may oe, two hundred years old, Hawkins they live forever mostly; and if anybody's seen more wiekedness it must be the devil him. self. She's sailed with England-the great Cap'n England, the pirate. She's been al Madagascar, and at Malabar, and Surinam, and Providence, and Portobello. She was at the fishing up of the wrecked plate ships. | It's there she learned Pieces of eight and little wonder; three hundred and fifty thou. sand of lem, Hawkinsi She was at the boarding of the V.eroy of the Indies out of Goa, she was; and to look at her you would think she was a babby. But you smelt pow. der-didn't you, eap'n?'
 Stand by to go about" the parrot would scream.
 'Ah, she's handsome craft, she is.v the cook would say, and give her sugar from his pocket, and then the bird would peck at the bars and swear straight on, passing belief for wickedness. There" John would add. you can't touch pitch and be mucked, lad. Here's this poor old innocent bird of mine swearing blue fire, and none the wiser, you may lay to that She would swear the same. In manner of speaking, before chaplain" And John would touch his forelock with solemn way he had, that made me think he was the best of men.
 In the meantime, squire and Captain Smollett were still on pretty distant terms with one another The squire made no bones about the matter; he deSpised the captain. The captain. on his part, never spoke but when he was spoken to, and then sharp and short and dry, and not word wasted. He owned. when driven Into a corner, that he seemed to have been wrong about the crew that some of them were as brisk as he wanted to see. and all had be- haved fairly well. As for the ship he had taken downright fancy to her. "She'n lie point nearer the wind than man has a Tight to expect of his own married wife, sir. But" he would add. ''all l say is, we're not home again, and don't like the cruise.
 The squire, at this, would turn away anil march up and down the deck, chin in air.
 We had some heavy weather, which only proved the qualities of the HspanioIa Every man on board seemed well content. and they must have been hard to please if
 
 there was never ships company so spoiled since Noah put to sea. Double grog was go- ing on the least excuse; there was duff on odd days, as for instance, if the squire heard 1t was any mans birthday: and always barrel of apples standing preached in tho waist for any one to help himself that had a fancy,
 Never knew good come of it yet" the captain said to Dr. Livesey ''Spoi foc's'le hands, make devils. That's my belief"
 But good did come of the apple barrel, as you shall hear; for if it had not been for that we should have had no note of warn ing, and might all have perished by the hand of treachers.
 This is how it came about
 We bad run up the trades to get the wind of the island we were after-I am not al- lowed 10 be more plain-and now we are run ming down for it with bright lookout day and night It was about the last day of our outward voyage by the largest computation; some time that night or at latest, before noon of the pporrow, We should sight the Treasure Island. We were heading $. $. w., and had steady breeze abeam and a quiet sea. The Hspaniola rolled steadily, dipping her bowsprit noH and then with NiiiH Ol spray. All was ufdNt0B dlOW ana aloft; every one was in the bravest spirits. because we were now so near an end of tine first part of our adventure.
 Now, just after sundown, when all my work was over, and 1 was on my way to my berth, Il occurred to nae that 1 should like an apple. ran on deck. The watch was all forward looking out for the island. The man at the helm was watching the luff of the sail, and whistling away gently to himself; and that was the only sound excepting the swish of the sea against the bows and around the sides of the ship.
 In got bodily into the barrel, and found there was scarce an apple left; but sitting down there in the dark, what with the sound of the waters and rocking movement of the ship, l had either fallen asleep. or was on the point of doing so, when heavy man sat down with rather clash close by. The barrel shook as he leaned his shoulders against it, and was just about to jump up when the man began to speak. It was Stl- vers voice and, before had heard dozen of words, 1 would not have shown myself for all the world but lay there, trembling and listening, in the extreme of fear and curiosity; for from these dozen words l un- derstood that the lives of all the honest men abseSd deDended upon me alone.
 ITO BE CoNTINUED1